Power BI: Beginner's Guide

BI, also known as Business Intelligence, is a technology-driven strategy for analyzing data and providing actionable information to help corporate leaders, business managers, and other users make better business decisions.

And there are many different Business Intelligence tools for business leaders to choose from. Today, I will discuss the BI tool we use for Datahyv clients - Power BI.

What is Power BI?

Power BI is a Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tool that transforms data from a variety of sources into interactive dashboards and analysis reports. It provides end-users with an easy interface to construct their reports and dashboards using cloud-based services for interactive visualizations. You may divide your data into little bits using Power BI Desktop. Moreover, similar to other business intelligence tools, Power BI can help make decisions better.

In 2009, Microsoft established Power BI and self-sufficiency is a concept that it appeals to. It brings your business data to life through a complex and concise reporting system.

It has different components namely: data analysis, data preparation, and data visualization.

Data Analysis

An organization must work with data that comes from a variety of sources and is stored in a variety of file formats. The information should be taken from a different source, such as a server or a database. This data is integrated into one standard format in a common staging area.

Data Preparation

The merged data is still not ready for visualization at this point because it needs to be processed. This information has been pre-processed. Duplicate values and missing values, for example, will be deleted from the data set.

When the data is cleaned, the business rule should be applied to it. That data can be loaded back into the Data Warehouse.

Data Presentation

After the data has been loaded and analyzed, it can be better visualized using Power Bi's numerous visualization tools. The use of a dashboard and report allows for a more intuitive representation of data. This visual report helps business end-users to make business decisions based on the insights.

It can be a bit difficult, to begin with, hence, there are Power BI tutorials available online to get someone started. There are several factors to look into, thus, Power BI training is more encouraged, to begin with to fully grasp its gist.

Why use Power BI?

You may wonder about the need to learn and use Power BI yourself when you can hire someone to do the job for you. On the contrary, as much as it’s convenient, it is an edge for business owners to know about the uses of Power BI. I will not specifically list down the cons of the Power BI itself since we will have a separate section for that. Instead, I’ll show the importance of using Power BI and what you can gain from it.

Power BI aids in data discovery, analysis, and presentation clearly and understandably. It provides the following features:

• Dashboards and reporting for SaaS solutions that are already built.
• Real-time dashboard changes are possible with Power BI.
• Provides secure and dependable connectivity to your cloud or on-premises data sources.
• Power BI offers Quick deployment, hybrid configuration, and a secure environment.
• Allows natural language queries to be used to explore data.
• Provides dashboard visualization tools that are continually updated by the community.

Pros and Cons

Nothing was ever built to be perfect. Hence, apart from the reasons stated above on why someone should utilize Power BI, we will also show you the advantages and disadvantages in using this tool.

PROS:

• Great for Excel users.
• Database connectivity capabilities are extensive, and the Q&A feature allows you to publish to the web.
• To use visualizations, interaction with both Python and R code is required.
• Many tools for wrangling and cleaning data are available in Power Query.
• After uploading the data into the Power BI web service, you may schedule a refresh without having to do anything manually.
• Power BI is backed by the superpower of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

CONS:

• Users with the same email domains can only access dashboards and reports.
• Imported data and data accessed through real-time connections will not be mixed by Power Bl.
• Power BI will not accept files more than 250MB or zip files that have been compressed using X-velocity in-memory database data.
• Power BI will not accept files larger than 1 GB in size.
• Dashboards never receive or pass parameters from users, accounts, or other entities.
• There are just a handful of data sources that allow Power BI reports and dashboards to be connected in real-time.

Power BI Tools

The following are the different Power BI Tools you can use for your business:

Power BI Desktop

Power BI desktop is the primary authoring and publishing tool for Power BI, allowing developers and power users to build brand new models and reports from the ground up. And it’s FREE!

Power BI Service

Power Bl data models, reports, and dashboards are housed on an online Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Cloud-based administration, sharing, and collaboration are all possible. It only costs $10 per user per month.

Power BI Data Gateway

The Power BI Data Gateway connects the Power BI Service to on-premise data sources such as DirectQuery, Import, and Live Query. Bl Admin is the one who installed it.

Power BI Report Server

Paginated reports, KPIs, mobile reports, and Power Bl Desktop reports can all be hosted on it. The IT crew updates it every four months and installs/manage it. Users can make changes to reports prepared by the development team, such as Power Bl reports.

Power BI Mobile Apps

Power BI has a mobile app for iOS, Android, and Windows. Microsoft Intune can be used to manage it. On the Power Bl Service Report Server, you may use this tool to examine reports and dashboards.

Conclusion

BI allows you to evaluate data and give actionable information, allowing corporate executives and business managers to make more educated decisions. Keeping oneself up to date and utilizing a tool with such a wide range of capabilities can only make a business executive’s life easier.

Interested in Power BI to help you make more data-driven business decisions? We at Datahyv offer Power BI in our suite of data solutions that optimize business operations. Book a free strategy session and demo with us here: www.calendly.com/datahyv/60min.